The ARCH-E White Paper

Recommendations for Quality-based Procurement Processes by Using Architectural Design Competitions

Based on the ARCH-E research and in-depth expertise of the members of the consortium, the ARCH-E White Paper presents recommendations on improving the ADC system in Europe. The ARCH-E White Paper is the result of a process of finding common views within the whole consortium. Each topic and recommendation presented in the White Paper was agreed on by all partners unanimously. These recommendations especially consider obstacles small and middle-sized enterprises (SMEs), young offices and female architects are encountering.

Precedent activities of ARCH-E show that despite compliance with the EU-Directive 2014/14/EU on public procurement, significant variations in the country-specific ADC systems exist. Additionally to the recommendations of the whole consortium, each member contributed country-specific recommendations, that are reflecting on problems and/or potentials on a national level.

A common prejudice against ADCs is that it would be expensive to organise an ADC and that the results would be cost intensive designs. Both assumptions can be proven wrong by data collected and analysed by ARCH-E. The data collected and analysed so far shows that potential savings on construction costs of up to 18,3% are possible to achieve in ADCs. The data and the according analysis can be found in chapter 2.